WAM Day 2 I was up bright and early ready to hear the first panel, chaired by the wonderful author and podcaster Kate Mildenhall, called The First Time: Publishing.
This panel held authors T.R. Napper, Irma Gold & Kathryn Heyman. It was very insightful and interesting to hear how each of these authors came to have a life full of books, writing and publishing. Each had such different experiences, especially when it came to book editing, selling rights, having a book agent and film contracts. Needless to say, many notes were taken on my phone from this panel!
Next up we heard from crime fiction writers, Shelley Burr & Margaret Hickey, both of whom were interviewd by the wonderful Jason Steger from The Age.
Shelley and Marg spoke about their tactics in plotting, what inspires them to write about murderous and conflicting characters in small town settings and what they’ve felt most rewarding about continuing to write in the fictional worlds they’ve created. I haven’t read either of their works but I sure will be now!
Then drumrolllll … meeting Kate Mildenhall was the absolute cherry on top of an already sunny weekend! 😊☀️
As I mentioned previously, I was bundled with excitement in meeting Kate as her book The Hummingbird Effect is surely going down as one of my favourite reads this year. Her interview with Paul Dalgarno was fascinating. Kate explained how a conversation over family dinner sparked her interest in a local well-known meat works that had burnt down in years past. This fire triggered a series of events, political movements and strikes for years to come. It affected not only the workers engaged in the meatworks, but their families, their suburb, their socials groups and more. Listening to Kate talk about her process of weaving her 5 connected stories together was inspiring and intricate. It was also unique and a once in a book lovers life time listening to this interview as Kate’s talent is like no other author I’ve listened to before.
And I might add – when I popped my hand up in the Q&A section of the interview to ask about the jaw dropping image in her book, without even having met me in person yet – but having seen my social media posts, Kate said before answering, “Is that Mel from Mel Reviews Her Books?”. I laughed and said “Yes!”. “I’m so excited to meet you!” she said – on stage, in front of a crowd of people! I couldn’t help but smile and giggle to myself 🤣
Finishing off this spectacular weekend, we listened to bestselling historical fiction author, Pip Williams. Wow! What a WAM way to go out with a bang.
Pip’s insight into the world of bookbinding, the rippling effects of WWI and how she created such emotive and heartfelt characters representative of this time is truely amazing. Pip explored with interviewer Jason Steger, how her previous career background in analysing human behaviour and patterns of human characteristics really enforced her passion for writing fiction characters, that we as the readers, ultimately believe to be real.
This was my second time hearing Pip’s experiences, as previous I had the wonderful opportunity of meeting her at a bookseller’s conference hosted by her publisher, Affirm Press. However, I can say with certainty, her story never ceases to captivate an audience (including me).
And that my book friends, was a wrap of my WAM of a weekend 💫 Again, I honestly cannot thank the WAM committee enough for curating, hosting and encouraging such a wonderful event filled with bookish passion, connection and the essence of community!
Mel Reviews Her Books 